Michelle Gable, Writer

How To: “Do It All”

This week was crazy. Multiple cities. Multiple hotels. All day long meetings which always mean all night working. I’m feeling much more stressed than I should for a Friday night. In anticipation of a weekend that will not slow down I wanted to review some of my favorite life tips. 😉 Here’s how to “do it all.”

Maintain loose standards about what comprises “too much TV/iPad” for kids

Take the entire day to unload the dishwasher (one plate at a time! you’ll get there!)

Assign children laundry duty; simultaneously develop ability to overlook heaping piles of clothes in the hallway

Teach your children proper conference call etiquette starting at about age 2 (side note: make sure they sign an NDA and are notified they can’t trade on any insider information gleaned on theses calls)

Make ample use of Outlook calendar (husband: “why does my calendar say I’m picking up the girls three times this week?” Because you are…)

Save money for “after school activities” and “camps”; one person’s “they’re making them practice softball four days a week!” is another’s “score! childcare with a purpose! All Stars for everyone!”

Ignore people who annoy you as long as it won’t lead directly to job loss, divorce, or a visit from CPS

Only cook when you feel like it

Spend no more than 5 minutes per year on Pinterest

Block off chunks of time on your calendar to ward off over-zealous meeting schedulers (IMPORTANT side note: if anyone in your company has calendar viewing privileges for yours make sure not to call these chunks of time “everyone leave me alone”…I speak from experience)

It’s not about “doing it all.” A more appropriate question would be “how do you do a few things some of the time?” Doesn’t sound too hard, does it? We can all do a few things some of the time.

I also have a personal motto, which I adhere to approximately 17% of the time, but we’re driving adoption toward 50% by year end. This motto is “pay yourself first.” You know better than anyone what you need to do right now, what can wait, and what makes you happiest, and the trick is triangulating these three things.

Similarly, know when to say “no.” This is a hard-fought lesson for me and one my husband would argue I do not abide by. But your boss/husband/school board/kids will never say “wow, I’d like to pass this off on her/him but I fear he/she’s overworked!” No, they will keep giving you all you can handle until you’re crying in the corner, at which time they’ll leave you alone for approximately 24 hours and it all start over again.

One more thing…and this is not tongue-in-cheek, the secret to life is getting up before 6am. No joke. I am convinced of this.